"Your Pho lit me up! What a relief to find such soulful
taste in a package I can safely eat. Thank You! Thank You! Thank
You! Most gluten/soy free foods I find lean toward sugar or salt.
Your spices are heavensent. My body said YUM for the first time in
YEARS." - Lynne, Gluten Allergic Gal.
"Unbelievable taste! The broth seems so healthy. And the
soup is so flavorful." - Tim, Health Conscious Guy.
"My kids LOVE them! I'm thrilled that they are now eating
these brown rice noodles instead of ramen. They're so quick
to cook and I can just make a healthy meal for the kids by adding
salmon or chicken and veggies. Takes 15 mins total.
What a find!" - Jane, Mom of 2 grade school kids, always looking
for a healthy, quick meal that the kids would eat.
"I was skeptical at first. I mean, home-made Pho in 15
minutes? C'mon! But then I got a box anyway and WOW. This is
actually real Pho. I can't believe I just made this myself!" -
Doug, Pho Lover.
HAPPY PHO GLUTEN FREE INSTANT VIETNAMESE BROWN RICE
NOODLE REVIEW
by Ravenous Couple
Have you noticed that with close to 100 recipes, we haven't
posted a single recipe for pho? We adore pho and love the
fragrance that wakes us up in the morning from an overnight
marriage of beef bones, charred ginger and onions, fennel,
coriander, star anise, and cinnamon infused broth. But yet, we
haven't posted our recipe. While pho may be almost synonymous
with Vietnamese food and considered the national dish, we started
this blog with the intent of showcasing the awesome variety and
deliciousness of Vietnamese food beyond pho. For the casual or even
food savvy American that reads our blog, most know of pho and banh
mi but likely not many more dishes beyond that. So our pho
recipe will still have to wait as we have so many other great
Vietnamese dishes to share. Here we present Happy Pho, a gluten
free, brown rice instant noodle created by pho lovers Thao Nguyen
and Karen Cheng from the San Francisco bay area and co-founders
of Star Anise Foods. We
received a package of shiitake mushroom pho to sample and recently
made it for dinner.
We typically eschew anything "instant," when shopping for
groceries, but Thao and Karen's story intrigued us. Pho runs in the
veins of Thao's family since the days of her grandparents peddling
pho on the streets of Nam Dinh, a city 1 hour south of Hanoi.
Growing up eating this pho, Thao along with friend Karen, a life
long lover of pho, began their mission to start a business based on
their mutual love of pho and desire to create a quick yet
nutritious instant version. In 2009, they packed their bags and
left for Vietnam, eating, sleeping, and dreaming about pho and how
they could recreate a version with wholesome ingredients. They
encountered resistance and even outright rejection when they ask
traditional pho noodle makers about making brown rice pho. But
through their persistence, they developed Happy Pho.
So what's in this box made of recycled paper and soy ink? Brown
rice noodles and a spice packet. On the surface, this is just like
any other instant noodle found in the Asian markets. But in reality
the rice noodles are from whole grain brown (more fiber and
nutrients) and organic green tea. Who would have thought that goes
in pho noodles?
The spice packet is loaded with bits of dried green onions and
shiitake mushrooms and is quite fragrant with star anise and
cinnamon--clearly no white crystalline MSG in this product.
Made just of organic star anise, organic Saigon cinnamon,
spring onion, shiitake mushroom, black cardamon and ginger.
Shall we compare this to a bag of Vifon instant pho we bought
for the purposes of this post? Spice ingredients: Salt, sugar,
refined palm oil, MSG, disodium 5-guanylate, disodium 5-inosinate,
textured wheat gluten, green onion, eryngiym, pho spices,
artificial beef flavor, nature color, caramel.
Unlike other brands of instant noodles where you just pour in
hot water and eat, Happy Pho does require and encourages you to
"cook," by seasoning the broth to your tastes and adding different
ingredients such as tofu, mushroom, spinach, etc.
Each box is a healthy serving for 2 adults. We made this
according to instructions bringing 4 cups of water and spice to
boil, then adding additional shiitake mushrooms, noodles, and
simmering it till just soft. The instructions call for adding salt
to taste--we added about 2 ts of salt and also about 1/2 ts of
sugar. We had the usual accompaniments of bean sprouts, basil,
thinly sliced beef for bo tai, and Sriracha and hoisin sauce.
So the verdict? It was good! Something you can keep in the
cupboard for a quick and easy meal. The size and texture of the
brown rice noodles was good and spot on. Clearly healthier and
better than the instant noodles/ramen that we used to eat in
college. The spice packet is simply just the whole ground spices so
you have the freedom to season to your taste. Does this broth
have the beefy flavors of the restaurant or home made pho with
overnight simmering of beef bones? Of course not--but it's not
meant to. The clean familiar fragrances of star anise and cinnamon
is pronounced and makes for a satisfying bowl of noodles dressed
with your favorite vegetables and/or meats. You can also use
different canned chicken, beef, or vegetal broths as a base or an
organic bouillion such as Rapunzels bouillon.
About Ravenous Couple
Hong is from the Northern Vietnam but grew up in Michigan.
Kim is from the Southern Vietnam but grew up in Southern
California. Now we're settled in different parts of the country
(Hong in California--Kim in Arizona) and nurturing a long distance
relationship. What brings us together besides the love for each
other is our passion for food. We both share a insatiable love for
good food and cook together when we visit each other. When we meet
we share our lives and our foods...cooking up life together.
Together we try to create food that reflects our Vietnamese
cultural heritage and focus on traditional Vietnamese recipes
as well as experiment with newly inspired tastes through travel and
learning. Visit their popular blog http://ravenouscouple.blogspot.com
This review was originally at
http://ravenouscouple.blogspot.com/2010/07/happy-pho-gluten-free-brown-rice-pho.html.